Differences Between Offline and Online Poker

While it is the same game that you are playing, the differences between offline and online poker strategy is significant.

Brick and mortar casinos only allow you to play at one table at a time and there are opponents you can see in the flesh to gauge the reactions and look for tells etc. to try and forecast what cards they may have and what they might do next.

Online poker allows you to play as many tables at a time as you wish and you do not get to see your opponent’s tells as everyone is behind their own computer monitor.

You can clearly see that there are going to be significant differences therefore in how you approach the game, as you cannot simply use the same strategy for both mediums and expect the same results.

By tweaking your strategy to suit the platform you are playing on, you will have a much better chance of making nice profits in the long run. Here are the major differences between playing offline and online poker, as well as how you should be adjusting your strategies in order to optimise your game for them.

The Online Poker Scene

The world of online poker is constantly growing as more and more people turn to it each and every day. Millions of people across the globe play on these platforms on a daily basis.

The advent of the internet meant that you no longer had to go to your local casino or poker room or friend’s house to get a poker game going, you could sit in bed in your underwear and have your laptop and play poker from there.

Unlike offline poker whereby you can only play one table at a time, you can easily play multiple tables with online poker simultaneously. Some top level professions even play more than two dozen tables at any given moment in time, crazy as it seems.

This means that they are playing a ton more hands per hour than those at the casino. The more hands you play, theoretically the better your game is going to be and your results will be good over time if you have a solid strategy in place as the variance that is associated with poker will be evened out over time.

Another great feature of online poker is that you have access to a stunning variety of tables. You can play all different variations of the game, such as Texas Hold Em, Stud, Omaha and so on, as well as different limits, table sizes and currencies.

This flexibility means that almost all of your needs are going to be met when looking for a specific game, as opposed to your local casino room that probably only caters for a couple of games at any given time.

You will also have access to all sorts of different bonuses, offers and loyalty programs that will reward you for your online play over time. These incentives can build up if you play regularly and can be redeemed in a variety of cool ways.

Real Life Poker

Real life poker is vastly different to the online version, no matter if you play it in a casino, at a poker room or just with friends. The whole experience has a different feel and vibe to it, as well as all of the strategies that go alongside it.

If you are in a casino environment it is going to be all hustle and bustle as waitresses will be going from table to table refilling your drinks and making sure that you aren’t hungry. The dealers are friendly and helpful and there will be a lot of interesting characters playing in your game.

When playing against actual people you know have the chance to notice and interpret tells, as well as trying to prevent yourself for showing any tells that will give away what sort of cards you have or what your strategy is. Common tells include shortness of breath, shaking hands and extreme eye movement.

This is why so many professional poker players wear sunglasses while playing as the eyes can give away a lot of information to people experienced in reading these types of visual cues.

Tactics to be Implemented

In offline casinos, the more experienced and established players will often to try use tactics that can be construed as aggressive, such as maintaining eye contact constantly to try and unnerve you.

They may also try to use different types of fake tells to try and bait players into one of the traps that they have set. The only types of tells that are available to you when you are playing online are their betting patterns and how fast the opponent is making their decisions.

When it comes to poker skill, it will transition nicely from offline to online poker and vice versa. Judgment calls that have been made after analysing how your opponent is betting and how they bet are something that is universal.

It probably wont’ take you long to identify certain betting patterns players have, whether they are conservative, more aggressive or simply loose and unpredictable. It is also worth picking out who the shark and who the fish at the table is so you always know who you are dealing with whenever you are competing in a hand.

With online poker it is almost impossible to be intimated as you cannot see those people you are playing against. There are chat rooms that accompany most of the top online poker sites so this can be a place where you can chat with people you are playing with and even making some friends in the process.

The mistake that many beginner poker players make is that they try to play too many tables at any one moment in time. It can be very hard to keep track of the betting patterns of certain opponents and their style of play if you are playing many different tables at time. This is something that needs to be gradually worked on, so don’t bite off more than you can chew.

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